Emet m'Tsiyon

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Apartheid in South Africa -- Anything like Israel?

UPDATING 5-19 & 6-10-2013 Links added at bottom

Those who want to destroy the Jews, who want to repeat the Holocaust, know that they have to first destroy the Jewish national state, Israel, the ancient Jewish homeland which has been in part recovered. And in order to destroy the Jewish national state, they have to destroy its good name, its reputation, paint it in the ugliest colors, --in short, delegitimize Israel-- in order to justify drastic political and military moves against it.

As in the past, as in the Middle Ages, when various sorts of horrid crimes were attributed to the Jews living in Christendom and Islamdom, as oppressed, exploited and persecuted minorities, so today Israel is accused of an horrid and ugly political crime: apartheid. Likewise, in past centuries, Jews were accused of murdering Christian children to use their blood in baking matsot for Passover or of poisoning the wells which every one had to drink from or of being bloodsuckers, so on and so forth.

But people today might find it hard to believe that Jews bake Christian or Muslim blood in Matsot that they then eat. So more up to date, more politically correct charges have to be put forth. Today's enemies of Jews have seized on apartheid as a useful accusation to make against Israel although it is groundless. It goes without saying that the religious apartheid practiced in Muslim countries, whether Saudi Arabia or non-Arab Pakistan, goes entirely unnoticed by Israel's accusers.

Here is a recent account of South African apartheid by a South African expatriate who has been living for years in Italy. Helene Blignaut is described as "a South African writer resident in Italy for many years. She is the author of historical novels and essays on fashion, and is a creator of events on the international level." [Helene Blignaut, "Apartheid: Il Principio e la Fine della grande vergogna," BBC History Italia (no. 8, November-December 2011), p66]

Apartheid: The Beginning and the End of the Great Shame -- Helene Blignaut

p62
. . . [films and still photos] show the deportations into the shack cities of hundreds of thousands of blacks in order to free up areas occupied by suburban [black] ghettos and make room for new white residential settlements. Forced deportations [were] now allowed by making the apartheid system (apartheid, the separation of various ethnic groups) official [policy] [racial segregation had been previously unofficial] , being ratified in 1948. It struck 20 million persons, imposing settlements [in segregated localities], school systems, assigning vocations, and civil rights different for each ethnic group. The notorious District Six of Capetown was "liberated" in 1966 in a few days, without prior notification, and immediately declared "an area for whites only." The earthmovers were ready for destroying the houses where 60,000 blacks to be deported were living. The equipment and material yards for new construction were ready too.

In townships like Soweto [South West Township], that in the 1960s and 1970s comprised more than one million persons (today three million live there, distributed over a variety of quarters, some poor and some for an emancipated, emerging middle class), there were common latrines, only one shack out of five had electric lighting, there was no heating, there was no asphalt on the streets. Moreover, pursuant to the "Native Consolidation Act" promulgated in 1957, the inhabitants of the townships were forbidden many commercial activities; in short, a resident of Soweto could open a business only in certain permitted commercial categories: food, clothing, lumber. . . Child mortality in Soweto was for decades three times higher than in the neighboring city of Johannesburg. . . .

In the cities, a black could not go up on the sidewalk but had to walk only in the gutters. Public transportation vehicles were different for the "non-whites" who did not even have the right to enter public buildings or places of entertainment. On some tracts of beach, one could see persons of Indian origin or of mixed race, but these were tracts of coasts assigned specifically to persons of color. Nearby were bathing zones with signs at the entrance "For whites only." Mixed marriages were forbidden as well as sexual relations between whites and blacks. . . .

We can see that some of the ways in which Blacks were treated in South Africa under apartheid are like the treatment imposed on Jews in Christian lands over the centuries, and like some of the rules imposed on all non-Muslims, dhimmis, including Jews, in Muslim-ruled lands. Of course, dhimmis were oppressed mainly on account of not being Muslims, not because of their skin color. No doubt some partisans of Arabs and Muslims would like to seize on that distinction in order to exculpate Islam of racism. OK, so the dhimma, the inferior status and oppressive, discriminatory laws and regulations governing the dhimmis was not exactly racism based on skin color. Rather it was religious oppression. Does that make it OK? Why don't those who smear Israel as an "apartheid" state take some interest in the dhimma which is still in effect, officially or unofficially, in many Muslim states [think of Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, etc]???

When the Land of Israel was under Muslim rule, during the pre-Crusades Arab period [638-1099 CE], during the Mamluk empire and the later Ottoman empire [1517-1917 (up to 1918 in northern Israel)], Jews in the Land lived in humiliating, oppressive, discriminatory conditions. Of course, Arabs are not treated by apartheid rules in Israel today. All adults in Israel are required to carry an ID card, although ordinarily people are not asked to show this ID card [te`udat zehut]. When withdrawing money from a bank or receiving a registered letter at the post office, you are usually asked to show your ID card.

The Jewish settlements in Judea-Samaria were built as a rule in uninhabited areas, in many cases on real estate already owned by Jews. In other cases, where Arabs were living on real estate owned by Jews, Arab residents were paid generously to leave.

Historically, the Palestinian Arab leadership collaborated in the Holocaust, particularly in the person of Haj Amin el-Husseini, the chief Palestinian Arab leader in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. By the way, Husseini was appointed to the prestigious Muslim religious post of mufti of Jerusalem by the British rulers of the country [1921]. For that reason, he is often referred to as "the mufti," "the mufti of Jerusalem," or "the grand mufti."

After UN General Assembly recommendation to partition the country between Jews and Arabs was made on 29 November 1947, Arab irregulars forces sponsored by Husseini began to attack Jewish residential areas and isolated Jewish homes throughout the country [December 1947], often succeeding in driving Jews out of their homes. In those days, the Arabs were frank about wanting to drive the Jews out of the country. And this followed their age-old oppression of the Jews in the Jewish homeland. Hence, the South African situation cannot be compared with that in the Land of Israel after the restoration of a Jewish state. The yearning for apartheid is clearly expressed, however, by the Palestinian Authority which aspires to political control over all of what is now Israel. Consider this. The Palestinian Authority wants to exclude Jews from a future Arab state that may arise in the Land of Israel.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
UPDATING 5-19-2013 Black South African, Rev Dr Kenneth Meshoe, a member of the South African parliament, refutes the Big Lie of "apartheid" in Israel. "This ridiculous accusation trivializes the word apartheid, minimizing
and belittling the magnitude of the racism and suffering endured by
South Africans of color. . . . The misapplication of the term apartheid makes a mockery of a grievous
injustice and threatens to undermine the true meaning of the term." [emphasis added]6-10-2013
Another refutation of the "Israeli apartheid" lie [here]. This lie is so gross, such a Big Lie, that it is a lie of Nazi dimensions.

More on alleged "apartheid in Israel" on Emet m'Tsiyon:here, here, here, here, & here. On the other hand, the European Union promotes apartheid in the Land of Israel against Jews: here.Former US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice smears Israel with apartheid label: here.The British Govt in the Holocaust era and "Liberal" US President
Franklin Roosevelt treated Jews in racist, discriminatory and apartheid
ways: here.

About

The world swims in lies. Who doesn't know that? Even the dupes are told there are lies about. We aim to dispel the fog of lies, especially about Israel, like our prophets of old and our poets like Yehudah haLevi.
We feature historic sources, documents, excerpts from the classics, etc.
How shall I render my vows and my bonds, While yet
Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
The false prophets cry Peace, and there is no peace.
A new post every 2 or 3 days.

About Me

צלום דבורה בת יהודה לייב ז''ל
Dvoyreh bas Yehudah Leyb, Eliyahu's mother. My own photo will have to await more peaceful times.
I have been an observer of
the human comedy, and the human tragedy for many years.